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Mediterranean deathtoll: Accidents or EU policy?

filippos — Thu, 14 May 2015 12:04:01 +0000

With the death toll of African and Asians on their way to Europe rising by the thousands, the European Union has showed once again that it is ready to pay the price of lives lost at sea to maintain the myth of sovereignty over its borders.

With ever growing securitization and militarization of its immigrations policies, the European Union is closing the gates to the unwanted outsiders and covers the Mediterranean in blood.

The media talk about a tsunami of refugees, and hordes of ‘illegal’ immigrants. They use a language that refers to war or environmental disaster and therefore, justifies all kinds of control and repression measures.

The law draws an arbitrary line between ‘forced’ and ‘voluntary’ migration. In reality, very little difference exists between those fleeing persecution and those fleeing hunger. At the end of the day, every human life has the same value.

Days after the deadliest incident in the Mediterranean, where more than 800 migrants lost their lives, the European Council called an emergency summit to respond to the crisis in the Mediterranean. There, it became clear that the incentive of the EU leaders is not to save lives but to forbid people from dying at their doorstep.

The EU and its member states try to seal their borders making regular ways of entry practically inaccessible, criminalizing irregular migration, and employing the latest military technology and brutal force to block access to their territory.

The result of these policies is violence and death. The EU denies responsibility for the thousands of lives lost at sea, the hundreds of thousands rotting in immigration detention, and all those forced to return to fear and want.

Instead, the recent mass drowning is used once again as an excuse for even further militarization, even stricter controls and closer cooperation with countries with problematic human rights records. The EU declared war on smugglers and stated that it would burn migrant vessels before departure, in order to protect migrants from the dangers of the sea.

Targeting smugglers is fighting only the symptoms of a disease that is as deadly as the system itself.

The European Union and its member states cannot deny their role in supporting and participating in the wars and the financial imperialism that drives people away from their homes. When this is coupled with human mobility, a phenomenon as natural as humanity itself, then desperate young men and women will put their lives at risk to cross a human-made border.

Drownings are not a natural phenomenon. It is a result of the EU migration policies.

ReInform

Source of featured image: dw.de

Golden Dawn Watch to shine a spotlight on upcoming trial

filippos — Thu, 16 Apr 2015 08:16:11 +0000

Greek anti-racism groups announced on Thursday an initiative to provide daily coverage and analysis of the upcoming trial of Greek far right party, Golden Dawn.

Their reports are also expected to be translated into English. As reported by ABC, Eleftheria Koumandou, a journalist and coordinator of the Greek observatory against racist speech in the media, commented that ”This is one of the most important trials in modern Greek history.”

Due to convene on 20 April, 72 members and supporters of the Neo-Nazi party will go on trial, facing a variety of charges including murder, conspiracy to murder, racist violence and membership of a criminal organisation. The charges come as the result of an investigation initiated after the fatal stabbing of anti-fascist rapper, Pavlos Fyssas, in September 2013, though the group had been previously implicated in a series of racist attacks on immigrants over a number of years. Amongst those on trial are party leader Nikos Michaloliakos and all of its MPs. Takis Giannopoulos, spokesman for the antifascist coordination group of Athens-Piraeus referred to the trial as a “historic opportunity to convict fascism and Nazism in all its aspects,” but also pointed out that ”the conviction is a first step only, as we need to eliminate the causes that generate fascism, such as poverty and inequality. “

The trial is set to take place in the high security prison of Korydallos in Athens, although there has been protests and concerns voiced in Athens about the disruption the trial would cause to local residents and schools. Apart from media attention, there are fears of clashes between Golden Dawn supporters and antifascists. Additionally, the party has been known to use intimidation tactics when its members have faced trial in the past. Golden Dawn Watch also therefore also aims to send the message that the world is watching, and that such tactics will not succeed, “The goal is to have a normal trial without a climate of terror, and to send a message that society is watching both Golden Dawn and the justice system,” said Dimitris Christopoulos, vice-president of the International Federation for Human Rights.

Source of Article: http://www.thepressproject.net
Source of featured picture: http://www.fimes.gr/tag/nikos-michaloliakos/
More about Golden Dawn Watch at: http://goldendawnwatch.org/

Solidarity with the workers of VIOME in front of the imminent threat of liquidation of the company

filippos — Mon, 16 Mar 2015 12:30:48 +0000

The workers of VIOME in Thessaloniki, Greece, have stood up against unemployment and poverty by carrying through a long struggle to self-manage the occupied factory in very adverse conditions. For two years now, they have been producing and selling ecological cleaning products at the occupied premises, ensuring a modest income for their families. They have been working on terms of equality, taking decisions collectively through the general assembly. At the same time they have received a big wave of solidarity from Greece and abroad, converting their struggle into an emblematic struggle for human dignity in crisis-stricken Greece.

The ex-owners of the factory, the Fillipou family, have never stopped trying to obstruct the process, posing legal hurdles in every step along the way. Four years ago they abandoned the factory, keeping all the benefits to themselves and leaving hundreds of millions in unpaid wages to the workers, condemning their families to poverty and misery. Today they appear again, conspiring with the state-appointed bankruptcy administrators and the judicial system in order to liquidate the company.

While the ex-owners were convicted to 123 months in jail at first instance for the millions owed to the workers, the court of appeals reduced this sentence to a 43 months suspended sentence, thus in effect absolving the ex-owners from having to ever pay back the workers.

At the same time, on March 23 there is a new trial to evaluate the administrator’s request to liquidate the machinery and the premises. If the court rules in favour, big financial and real estate interests will have the opportunity to gain a foothold in the VIOME premises.

The workers of VIOME and the national and international solidarity movement are determined to resist a possible sell off by any means available. On Friday, March 20 we are carrying out a protest at Thessaloniki’s city centre, including a farmers market and the direct sale of the VIOME products to the public. On Monday, March 23 we gather in front of the court house, to protest against the intention of the administrators and the judges to liquidate and sell off the company and its premises, to condemn the workers and their families to unemployment and misery in order to serve the interests of the powerful.

Furthermore we declare that, regardless of the ruling of the court, we are determined to stand our ground and defend the VIOME factory, a workplace that was kept alive thanks the determination of the workers and the solidarity of the wider community. We refuse to surrender it to the judicial powers, which have repeatedly denied justice to the workers and the underprivileged.

Our destiny is now in our own hands, we manage our work and our lives ourselves. We will not permit anyone to destroy what we have built with so much effort. We declare to the judges, the police, the administrators, the ex-owners and any prospective buyers:

VIOME IS NOT FOR SALE!

VIOME WILL REMAIN IN THE HANDS OF THE WORKERS!

Maagdenhuis Occupation: Their struggle is our struggle

filippos — Thu, 12 Mar 2015 14:45:35 +0000

We call upon the Greek people to support the struggle of the students
in the Maagdenhuis against the neoliberalisation of the university and society.
Support their struggle for a free and democratic university and a free and democratic society!

Pllease, send this solidarity declaration to any Greek union, student
group/union/council, political organization and collective you can be
in touch with and ask them to adopt it.

- Their struggle is our struggle -

You can forward their response to the e-mail of ReINFORM: reinform@espiv.net.
We will collect the signatures and deliver them to the students of the
Maagdenhuis.

Declaration of solidarity with the struggle of the UvA’s students and staff by collectivities in Greece^*

We express our solidarity with the struggle of the UvA’s students, who are fighting for days against the transformation of the University into a company and the commercialization of knowledge.

We express our solidarity with all those who are struggling from the historical building of Maagdenhuis against the ones who regard the students as numbers destined to attract sponsors, without a say in the content and function of the University.

We stand on the side of the universities’ employees, who are increasingly deprived of secure work and are forced into flexible employment, constantly faced with the threat of underfunding, which is driving the “non-competitive” faculties to shut down and many others to merge (Profiel 2016).

We stand in solidarity with all of you opposing the mortgaging of the public property to the banks, the transformation of the University into real estate business, and of whole countries -along with their citizens- into markets.

We support your struggle for a public and democratically controlled University: Appointed managers and creditors are not the ones who know the problems and needs of the universities. Ιt is the academic community itself in dialogue with society.

Your struggle extends beyond Maagdenhuis or the Faculty of Humanities of the University of Amsterdam to embrace all those who are anxiously watching the capital and its representatives -either University Boards, big companies and banks or neoliberal governments and the European Union- defining our lives.

We will not let them!

We will not allow them to lock us into debts while they make profits at our expense by turning education, housing and healthcare into fields of business exploitation.

We will not pay the price of their investments and competition with our rights to education, work, justice and democracy.

Let’s struggle:

for a University open to society and its needs.

for a public, democratically controlled University, accountable to the academic community and society.

for self-organization and active participation to the organization of struggles.

^*So far this declaration of solidarity has been adopted by:

- Labour Club Nea Smirni, Greece

- Labour Club Kallithea, Greece

- Labour Club Keratsini-Drapetsona, Greece

- Trade Union of Salaried Engineers

… and more are expected.

Ψήφισμα συμπαράστασης στον αγώνα των φοιτητών του UvA

Εκφράζουμε την αλληλεγγύη μας στον αγώνα των φοιτητών του UvA, που
μέρες τώρα παλεύουν ενάντια στη μετατροπή του Πανεπιστημίου σε
επιχείρηση και στην εμπορευματοποίηση της γνώσης.
Εκφράζουμε την αλληλεγγύη μας σε όλους αυτούς που αγωνίζονται από το
κατειλημμένο ιστορικό κτίριο του Maagdenhuis ενάντια σε όσους
αντιμετωπίζουν τους φοιτητές σαν αριθμούς για την προσέλκυση
χρηματοδότησης, χωρίς λόγο για το περιεχόμενο και τον τρόπο
λειτουργίας του Πανεπιστημίου.
Είμαστε αλληλέγγυοι με τους εργαζόμενους των πανεπιστημίων, ένα ολοένα
και μεγαλύτερο τμήμα των οποίων δεν έχει σταθερή και μόνιμη εργασία
αλλά απασχολείται με ευέλικτους όρους, ενώ απειλείται διαρκώς από τη
μάστιγα της υποχρηματοδότησης που εξωθεί τα «μη ανταγωνιστικά» τμήματα
σε κλείσιμο και προκαλεί τη συγχώνευση πολλών άλλων (Profiel 2016).
Είμαστε αλληλέγγυοι στην αντίστασή σας ενάντια στην υποθήκευση της
δημόσιας περιουσίας στις τράπεζες, στην αντιμετώπιση του Πανεπιστημίου
σαν real estate και, τελικά, χώρες ολόκληρες και τους πολίτες τους σαν
αγορές.
Είμαστε αλληλέγγυοι στον αγώνα σας για ένα Πανεπιστήμιο δημόσιο και
δημοκρατικά ελεγχόμενο. Δεν είναι οι διορισμένοι μάνατζερ και οι
τραπεζίτες πιστωτές των πανεπιστημίων που γνωρίζουν τα προβλήματα και
τις ανάγκες τους, αλλά η ίδια η ακαδημαϊκή κοινότητα σε διάλογο με την
κοινωνία.
Ο αγώνας σας ξεπερνάει τα όρια του Maagdenhuis και της σχολής των
ανθρωπιστικών σπουδών του Πανεπιστημίου του Άμστερνταμ και αφορά όλους
όσοι αγωνιούν βλέποντας το κεφάλαιο και τους κάθε λογής εκπροσώπους
του, από τις Διοικήσεις των Πανεπιστημίων, τις μεγάλες επιχειρήσεις
και τις τράπεζες έως τις νεοφιλελεύθερες κυβερνήσεις και την Ευρωπαϊκή
ένωση, να ορίζουν τις τύχες μας.
Δεν θα τους αφήσουμε!
Δεν θα τους αφήσουμε να μας βυθίζουν στα χρέη ώστε αυτοί να
κερδοφορούν εις βάρος μας, μετατρέποντας την εκπαίδευση, τη στέγαση ή
την υγεία σε πεδία επιχειρηματικής εκμετάλλευσης.
Δεν θα πληρώσουμε εμείς τα σπασμένα των δικών τους επενδύσεων και του
ανταγωνισμού τους, με περικοπές στο δικαίωμά μας στην εκπαίδευση, την
εργασία, τη δικαιοσύνη και τη δημοκρατία.
Εμπρός για ένα πανεπιστήμιο ανοιχτό στην κοινωνία και τις ανάγκες της.
Εμπρός για ένα δημόσιο πανεπιστήμιο με δημοκρατικό-κοινωνικό έλεγχο,
που θα λογοδοτεί στην ακαδημαϊκή κοινότητα και την κοινωνία.
Εμπρός για την αυτοοργάνωση και την ενεργό συμμετοχή στην οργάνωση του αγώνα.

Dam Square Demonstration 15/02

filippos — Tue, 17 Feb 2015 12:37:27 +0000

On Sunday 15th of February, hundreds of people gathered at Dam Square, Amsterdam to demonstrate against the neoliberal austerity policies of the EU, to express their solidarity and make their voice heard.

We the people of Dam Square, we demand

- the write off of the debt

- the end of the austerity policies in Greece and in the Netherlands.

We fight

- so that we don’t allow the banks to lead our lives

- for the right of the people to make their own destiny.

Venceremos

We will not pay the crisis of the banks!
We will take our lives into our own hands!
We will live free from their shackles!
We will meet again in the streets!
Solidarity is our weapon!

The following groups joined us expressing their solidarity:
Internationale Socialisten
Platform Stop Racisme en Uitsluiting
Youth of Syriza in The Netherlands
DIDF (Federation of Democratic Associations of Turkish Workers in the Netherlands)
Cypriots living in The Netherlands
Federation of Greek Communities in The Netherlands
Grenzeloos-Borderless
Critical Collective
Kritische Studenten Utrecht
Kritische Studenten Amsterdam
Ander Europa
SP Amsterdam (Department of the Socialist Party of the Netherlands in Amsterdam)
De Rode Morgen
Podemos Amsterdam
SP Beuningen
Vakbondsstrijd Vecht voor je Recht
Doorbraak
SP Utrecht
SP Rotterdam
Committee for the Abolition of Third World Debt
Transnationals Information Exchange (TIE)- Netherlands
ROOD
Anarchistische Groep Nijmegen
Gezi Solidarity Netherlands

Source of videos & pictures: The people of Dam Square

Demonstration on15th February at 14.00, Dam Square in Amsterdam

filippos — Mon, 09 Feb 2015 10:43:54 +0000

SOLIDARITY WITH THE GREEK PEOPLE! NO TO THE BLACKMAIL OF THE EU!
ΤHE CRISIS WILL NOT BE PAID BY THE EUROPEAN CITIZENS!

Scroll down for Dutch and Greek.

On Sunday February 15th there will be demonstrations all over Greece and Europe since on that day crucial negotiations between the Greek government and the Eurogroup will take place. These demonstrations will send the message to the European leaders that the people of Europe will be also present during these negotiations. Our demands for the end of austerity and the abolition of the memoranda (the so-called austerity programmes) should be the starting point for any new agreements.

We invite everybody to join us on Sunday in solidarity with the citizens of Greece against Eurogroup’s persistence to continue with the regime of austerity policies in Europe. We want to show our support to the popular demands and the needs of the people who fight against these policies across Europe. We want to put a pressure on the newly formed coalition government of SYRIZA as well that they should not give in to this blackmail and that they should respect the recent mandate they received by the Greek people.

Date and time: Sunday 15th February at 14.00
Location: Dam Square, Amsterdam

ReINFORM
Internationale Socialisten
Platform Stop Racisme en Uitsluiting
Νεολαία ΣΥΡΙΖΑ Ολλανδίας
DIDF (Ομοσπονδία Δημοκρατικών Συνδέσμων Τούρκων Εργατών στην Ολλανδία)
Κύπριοι που ζουν στην Ολλανδία
Συνομοσπονδία Ελληνικών Κοινοτήτων Ολλανδίας
Grenzeloos-Borderless
Critical Collective
Kritische Studenten Utrecht
Podemos Amsterdam

SOLIDARITEIT MET HET GRIEKSE VOLK! NEE TEGEN DE CHANTAGE VAN DE EU!
DE CRISIS MOET NIET BETAALD WORDEN DOOR DE EUROPESE BURGERS!

Op zondag 15 februari wordt in heel Griekenland en andere Europese landen gedemonstreerd. De aanleiding is de onderhandelingen van de Eurogroep met de Griekse regering. De demonstraties hebben als doel het signaal af te geven aan de Europese leiders dat het Griekse volk ook aanwezig is bij de onderhandelingen. Ons verzoek is het einde van de bezuinigingen en het opzeggen van de wurgakkoorden met de Troijka. Dit verzoek moet de minimum basis vormen voor de nieuwe afspraken.

We nodigen iedereen uit om te demonstreren samen met de Griekse bevolking tegen de eis van de Eurogroep om de wurgcontracten in Griekenland te handhaven. We willen ook de nieuwe coalitie regering van SYRIZA dwingen om niet aan de chantage van de EU toe te geven maar het verzoek en de behoeftes van het Griekse volk te steunen. SYRIZA moet haar recente politieke mandaat respecteren.

Datum en tijd: zondag 15 februari om 14.00 uur
Locatie: De Dam, Amsterdam

ΑΛΛΗΛΕΓΓΥΗ ΣΤΟΝ ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΟ ΛΑΟ! ΟΧΙ ΣΤΟΥΣ ΕΚΒΙΑΣΜΟΥΣ ΤΗΣ ΕΕ!
ΤΗΝ ΚΡΙΣΗ ΔΕ ΘΑ ΤΗΝ ΠΛΗΡΩΣΟΥΝ ΟΙ ΕΥΡΩΠΑΙΟΙ ΠΟΛΙΤΕΣ!

Την Κυριακή στις 15 Φεβρουαρίου έχουν οργανωθεί συγκεντρώσεις διαμαρτυρίας σε όλη την Ελλάδα και άλλες Ευρωπαϊκές χώρες καθώς την ημέρα αυτή πραγματοποιούνται κρίσιμες διαπραγματεύσεις μεταξύ της ελληνικής κυβέρνησης και του Eurogroup. Οι συγκεντρώσεις αυτές θα στείλουν μήνυμα στους Ευρωπαίους ηγέτες ότι και οι πολίτες της Ευρώπης θα είναι παρόντες κατά τη διάρκεια αυτών των διαπραγματεύσεων. Οι απαιτήσεις μας για να σταματήσει η λιτότητα και να καταργηθούν τα μνημόνια θα πρέπει να αποτελέσουν τη βάση οποιασδήποτε συμφωνίας που θα γίνει στο μέλλον.

Σας καλούμε όλους να συμμετάσχετε σε αυτή την διαμαρτυρία και να σταθείτε δίπλα στον ελληνικό λαό που αντιστέκεται στην αδιαλλαξία του Eurogroup το οποίο απαιτεί τη συνέχιση των πολιτικών λιτότητας σε όλη την Ευρώπη. Θέλουμε να δείξουμε τη συμπαράσταση μας στα ουσιαστικά αιτήματα και τις ανάγκες όλων των πολιτών της Ευρώπης ενάντια σε αυτές τις πολιτικές. Θέλουμε να στείλουμε επίσης μήνυμα και στην κυβέρνηση συνεργασίας του ΣΥΡΙΖΑ ότι δεν πρέπει να ενδώσει στους εκβιασμούς των ηγετών της ΕΕ αλλά να σεβαστεί την λαϊκή εντολή που έλαβε πρόσφατα από τους Έλληνες πολίτες.

Ημέρα και ώρα: Κυριακή 15 Φεβρουαρίου στις 14.00
Σημείο συνάντησης: Πλατεία Dam στο Άμστερνταμ

Source of featured image: http://roarmag.org

Germany Digs in Heels on Austerity as Greece Demands End to ‘Business As Usual’

filippos — Fri, 06 Feb 2015 14:35:22 +0000

As a leaked document on Wednesday suggested the German government is determined to take a hard stance against the new Syriza government, Greece’s newly appointed financial minister Yanis Varoufakis declared “business as usual” is no longer an option when it comes to his nation’s relationship with European creditors.

Representing the new anti-austerity Syriza government, Varoufakis said he is optimistic that ongoing talks with foreign ministers and Troika representatives—which includes the IMF, the European Central Bank (ECB), and European Commission—will allow Greece to strike a deal after a series of high-level meetings this week.

On Wednesday, Varoufakis met with the head of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, and Mario Draghi, head of the ECB , as well as his German counterpart Wolfgang Schaueble, to discuss a proposal to link Greece’s debt repayments with the country’s economic growth.

Ahead of that meeting on Thursday, however, a leaked document revealed that Germany will press the new Greek government to rescind their campaign promises and continue with the Troika’s austerity agenda.

The German government document, according to Reuters,

was prepared by Berlin for a meeting of senior euro zone finance officials on Thursday. The officials are to discuss the currency bloc’s response to Greek demands for an official debt write-off or restructuring, an end to budget cuts and a reversal of some recent unpopular measures.

The German document stressed that Athens must not roll back any of the cutbacks and reforms made so far in Greece’s efforts to improve bloated public finances and regain market trust.

“It is obvious that these suggestions will not be accepted by the Greek government. They are clashing with the recent mandate given by the Greek people and this not help with the growth perspective of Europe,” a Greek government official told Reuters.

No More “Business as Usual”

Earlier in the day, Varoufakis told reporters that he and the head of the ECB had a “fruitful exchange.”

“We established a line of communication. We outlined to him the main objectives of this government which is to reform Greece in a way that has never been tried before and with a determination that was always absent,” he said according to Reuters.

“I presented [Draghi with] our government’s utter and unwavering determination that it can’t possibly be business as usual in Greece,” Varoufakis continued.

In an interview published Wednesday with German newspaper De Zeit, the leftist finance minister accused the Troika of “ruining” his country. “The Troika doesn’t have a mandate to negotiate another policy with us. But that does not mean we will no longer work together with our partners,” Varoufakis added.

Greece has abandoned demands for a write-off of foreign debt and has instead proposed swapping the outstanding €240 billion in bailout debt for growth-linked bonds accompanied by a crackdown on tax evasion and budget surpluses.

Varoufakis said the ECB would be paid back “entirely and by the deadline,” while the other debts, to the IMF and other countries, are substituted “with new bonds at market interest, which is very low at the moment, with a clause: we will start the entire repayment once solid growth starts in Greece.”

The ECB did not comment on the talks. However, a source “familiar with the Greek position” told Reuters that the country is considering asking for a “bridge program” from its lenders so that it is more likely to qualify for ECB funding.

In the De Zeit interview, Varoufakis called the troika’s bailout policies a “huge mistake.”

“Greece collapsed under its debts,” Varoufakis said. “How did we deal with that? We gave even more loans to an over-indebted state. Imagine one of your friends loses his job and can no longer pay his mortgage. Would you give him another loan so he can make payments on his house? That cannot work. I’m the finance minister of a bankrupt country!”

Economists Weigh In

Noted economists have backed Syriza’s attempt to renegotiate.

As Nobel Prize winner Joseph Stiglitz noted in a column earlier this week, despite EU rhetoric and at great cost to their economy, Greece largely succeeded in following the dictate set by the Troika. However, “with the anti-austerity Syriza party’s overwhelming election victory, Greek voters have declared that they have had enough.”

“Greece has also once again reminded us of how badly the world needs a debt-restructuring framework,” Stiglitz writes, adding that their “current plight, including the massive run-up in the debt ratio, is largely the fault of the misguided troika programs foisted on it.”

And Dean Baker, co-founder of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, told Democracy Now! on Wednesday: “Greece has been in a situation where it’s had austerity been imposed on it over the last five years, and its economy has suffered horrendously.”

Despite the pressure from Germany, Baker explained that he thinks the new left-leaning government is “being very smart” in their plan to roll-back the austerity reforms, which he says have caused skyrocketing unemployment and a massive drop in the size of the economy.

Baker continued:

[The Greek government is] trying to say, ‘OK, we’ve got to move away from this. You have to give us room to grow.’ And they’re trying to press the case, with obviously Germany being the main party on the other side, at the end of it—I mean, it’s behind the European Union, European Commission, but really it’s Germany. And they’re hoping to get allies among Spain, Italy, France. They’re trying to push that line.

An Economy for Anthoula

Speaking with De Zeit, Varoufakis appealed directly to German citizens.

He said: “Germans have to understand that it doesn’t mean we’re turning away from the reform path if we give an additional €300 a year to a pensioner living on €300 a month. When we talk about reforms, we should talk about cartels, about rich Greeks who hardly pay any taxes.”

Later, when asked about the Syriza government’s plan to rehire thousands of civil servants, and whether the plan will further “bloat” the Greek economy, Varoufakis continued:

We aren’t bloating it. If we notice that we have too many people, we will change course and no longer fill positions when they become empty, for example. When I was still working at the University of Athens, there was a cleaning lady there named Anthoula. We often had to work until midnight. Although her workday had ended much earlier, Anthoula cleaned up after us and unlocked the rooms for us the next morning. Guess who was let go first as part of the austerity program? Anthoula.

“The example of Anthoula is emblematic of the situation in Greece,” he said, saying the decision by EU reformers to dismiss cleaning ladies “who went home with €500 a month” over highly paid consultants “morally reprehensible.”

“The reforms have been inefficient and unfair,” he said.

Source of article: http://www.commondreams.org/news/2015/02/04/germany-digs-heels-austerity-greece-demands-end-business-usual
Source of feature image: http://www.telesurtv.net/english/multimedia/Elections-in-Greece-Syriza-Rising-20150122-0022.html

Thousands Organize First Pro-Govt Rally in Athens

filippos — Fri, 06 Feb 2015 14:31:28 +0000

The election of a left government in Greece breathed new life into the people and the Athenian movement rose from its ashes. Thousands answered to a facebook call-out and gathered on Thursday in front of the Parliament to back up the government in the negotiations with Germany and the European Central Bank. Athens now brings forward new dilemmas: Are movements by definition opposition movements, the existence of which is only legitimized by antagonizing the government?

A demonstration largely different from those Athens has seen in recent years took place today in downtown Athens’ Syntagma Square. The rally was called for 6.00 pm and was organized through social media. It was the first pro-government demonstration organized in Greece in recent years. Four years ago, in summer 2011 the Spanish-inspired movement of the “Indignados” attracted thousands of protestors rallying against austerity measures in the same square.

Once again, the protestors’ request was the abolition of the austerity policies imposed upon Greece. The crowds gathered in front of the Greek Parliament in support of the new anti-austerity SYRIZA-led government’s efforts to renegotiate the country’s international debt. The chants were mostly against German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, who earlier today met with his Greek counterpart in Berlin. Apparently, the two Ministers did not come to an agreement regarding the Greek bailout program’s future.

On the opposite, Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis, emerging lately as Greece’s new “super star,” was the protestor’s favorite along with Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras.
“European Central Bank (ECB) President Draghi chose to play Merkel’s game again and blackmail the Greek people and the new Greek government,” was, among others, declared in the demonstration’s declaration, calling people to hold a peaceful protest in Syntagma Square against ECB’s decision not to accept Greek bonds as loan collateral.

It should be noted that police presence was null and it was the first time protestors could even reach the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and the stairs leading to the Greek Parliament, as the iron fence that was installed there for years has been removed by the new government. Similar peaceful demonstrations were held in other major Greek cities.

Source of article and pictures: http://www.kritischestudenten.nl/blog/nieuws/thousands-organize-first-pro-govt-rally-athens/
Source of feature image: http://www.efsyn.gr/

Job substitution

filippos — Mon, 15 Dec 2014 12:58:48 +0000

Doorbraak has published a lot of articles on the issue of forced labour for benefit claimants. The emphasis has mainly been on the regime they have to work under. But equally important is the substitution of regular paid work that is the consequence of forced labour. This substitution undermines the entire system of paid labour: why should an employer pay for workers when it is becoming easier all the time to get workers for free from the Ministry of Social Affairs. In this way the forced labour not only affects the unemployed but will eventually also have consequences for everyone who has to work for a living through a regular paid job or working as a freelancer.

“Home care workers in Rotterdam who will lose their jobs in 2014 will be partly replaced by benefit recipients. The municipality will oblige those on benefits to do volunteer work”, De Volkskrant newspaper wrote towards the end of 2013. “This is substitution pure and simple”, according to Wim van der Hoorn, a union leader of the FNV labour union. “The municipality tries to patch up the holes in its budget by using the free labour of benefit claimants to get work done that previously was paid work. In this way employment is lost”. But the PvdA (Social Democratic party) elderman Marco Florijn tries to keep up appearances and “wishes to underline that the absolute precondition is that no regular jobs are lost”. His political associate Jan Hamming, mayor of Heusden and chairman of the advisory committee “Work and Income” of the association of Dutch municipalities VNG, is a lot more honest on this issue. He admits that the use of benefit claimants can threaten existing jobs. “There is a financial side to this story. We are confronted with substantial budget cuts. That also impacts on the work in municipalities: it does not get done. So it is only logical that we are also considering putting people who are on benefits to work.” Rotterdam is not a unique case for that matter: thousands, possibly tens of thousands and who knows in future hundreds of thousands of benefit claimants are being forced to do unpaid labour.

Sticky fingers

The question is who profits from forced labour and job substitution, and what the amounts are that we are talking about. It is difficult for us to get this information. The implementation is far from transparent. Many municipalities have already introduced forced labour but they all have their own approach, often through structures that differ only slightly. In some instances the benefit claimants have to do forced labour in municipal reintegration centres and sheltered workplaces, in other places they have to work in home care or with ‘volunteer’ organisations, and other municipalities put them to work in commercial reintegration agencies, temp agencies and commercial businesses.

Obviously any commercial business will only want to be involved in such projects if these are financially attractive. In principle forced labourers are cheaper than regular employees because they do not receive wages and have no entitlements regarding better (and thus more expensive) working conditions. But it is usually unclear how much money is involved, and where exactly it disappears into the deep pockets along the way in the outplacement chain. In most cases it will be financially attractive for the municipalities to force benefit claimants into compulsory unpaid labour. After all, their benefits are being paid by the national government, although in practice quite a few municipalities have already been obliged to pay a share of these costs. With or without municipal deficit: all extra income from forced labour is probably welcome. The downside is that an entire system of repression has to be set up to continuously monitor the forced labourers, and this is costly: the minimum that is necessary would be the monitoring infrastructure plus the wages for the guards and ‘coordinators’. But this in a way is employment and can probably be paid out of the so-called ‘employment budget’ which is part of the social benefits budget that the municipalities receive from the government. In addition there have to be employees who bring in customers and orders, and this should not be too difficult with the obviously low labour cost that can be guaranteed through forced labour. Companies and municipalities try to sell forced labour with all sorts of explanations about ‘social return’, ‘gaining experience’, and ‘giving people guidance and support’, as they do for low paid and unpaid internships and other types of worktraining programmes. Usually it is just empty words but not always: sometimes they really do invest some time into explaining the work to people and training them. And in some cases new workers do indeed produce less in the beginning than their experienced colleagues. In short there would have to be an in depth national research with full cooperation from civil servants, businesses, unions and economists to get to the bottom of who really benefits from forced labour and to what extent.

Substitution

The question is: how useful would such research be for the bottom-up activists, for the workers themselves? And what do we mean by ‘substitution’, how would we describe it? If we look at it from the bottom up it is really very simple: any form of labour that is paid less than the minimum wage or the collective labour agreement wage for adults, in whatever way and with whatever excuse possible, in fact means that regular paid jobs are being replaced. This applies to forced labour in the same way it applies to unpaid internships, worktraining programmes, youth minimum wage jobs, and so on. After all the existing work is turned into a lower paid or even unpaid job.

For alderman Florijn ‘substitution’ probably only applies when a regular paid job is replaced one-on-one by ‘voluntary work’. From the position of the forced labourer however it does not matter at all whether or not the work was a decently paid job earlier on. The issue is that work that is done by a forced labourer cannot be done by a regular paid worker any more. To put it bluntly: every forced labourer is made to substitute the paid job that he or she could have had without forced labour. And this also goes for work that has never, or not for years, been paid work. The fact is that this work obviously needs to be done, otherwise no one would be forced to do it, or be recruited for it, and no internships would be established to do it. The authorities and bosses would simply have to pay to get this work done if forced labour and all sorts of vague internship constructions had not been created. In that case the labourers would have had their wages and rights. Basically there is only one exception to this rule and this is the work that was simply made up to keep benefit claimants busy, to discipline them and bully them out of the benefits scheme. You know the type of work: one man digs a hole and the other one fills it up again. Or the type of forced labour where the benefit claimants just have to show up at the workplace but there is nothing to be done except hang around and wait. This is not substitution of course, but out of principle even in those cases people ought to be properly paid for this. Let alone the fact that benefit claimants are being humiliated by this, and that for that reason alone forced labour should be abolished immediately.

But there is more to substitution than this. Forced labour and obligatory ‘volunteer work’ are not only substituting regular paid jobs, but also important unpaid work such as for example first-line care by family or others, political activism, and also a lot of real volunteer work that the government does not approve of. This means that the existing volunteer economy is losing its autonomy and gets to be more and more controlled by municipalities. In this way forced labour harms community and volunteer work, and other activities outside of the capitalist logic that make life worthwhile for many people.

Profit and loss

When we start looking at the financial question from bottom-up things actually become quite simple. The extra revenues that this substitution generates for bosses and municipalities equals exactly the amount that all forced labourers, interns and work experience placements together lose compared to when they would receive a regular (collective labour agreement or adult) minimum wage. This is the amount that the working class as a whole is being deprived of, on top of the added value they produce and that is always appropriated by the capitalist class anyway. These calculations can also easily be made for individual cases: how much money does a benefit claimant who works, receive less compared to when he or she would be paid a regular wage. And if we would add these sums for the by now estimated tens of thousands of forced labourers we quickly end up with huge amounts. In Leiden the forced labourers officially have to work 26 hours a week, and as a result the minimum wage for the hours worked would be exactly the same as their benefits. This would be a financial-technical way to prevent substitution, but in practice most forced labourers work far more than 26 hours. In addition the forced labour placements continue to substitute regular jobs with regular labour rights.

If you look at it from the bottom up it is a false argument used by employers and municipalities, that forced labourers, interns and youth work placements have to learn the work and produce less so should get paid less. Not only is their production not always lower, in some cases it is even higher. The point is that this growing group of underpaid or not paid labourers have to pay for their housing, food, clothing and insurances just like anyone else. It is not about productivity as it is with old-fashioned piece rate, but about the time that workers give to their bosses. The workers can only make use of their time once, and this is a problem when due to these forms of underpayment more and more people working during all the working hours they have only receive an income that is not even a living wage. The issue should be a decent living wage for everyone.

Eric Krebbers

Source of Article: http://www.doorbraak.eu/job-substitution/

Source of Featured Image: http://simplepimple.com/2012/08/are-internships-a-form-of-modern-slavery/

Nikos Romanos brought the government to its knees!

filippos — Wed, 10 Dec 2014 12:53:03 +0000

After 31 days of hunger strike for his right to education, anarchist prisoner N. Romanos won. He and all the people who showed their solidarity during the last month and especially during the climactic last days with a lot of demonstrations in Athens and all over Greece forced the government to surrender and step back from their relentless attack against anyone who stands up against them for their rights.

After 31 days of hunger strike N. Romanos will be granted the educational leaves to be able to follow his studies with the use of an electronic position surveillance device under the condition that he will follow 1/3 of the courses of the first semester via internet.

After 31 days of hunger strike the state had to kneel down in front of the struggle for freedom. This is not only a victory of one person against the state, but a breath of freedom for everyone who is standing up against this totalitarian regime.

10/12/2014
ReINFORM

Source of featured image: omniatv.com (NIKHTHΣ means WINNER)